The festival initially felt like a treasure hunt. We walked the long road hunting out the pockets of artistic activity. Wherever crowds gathered, and wherever we saw obronis, we rushed over to discover what was occurring. This unpredictable, surprise quality made it enjoyable. The programme predictably ran late but who was rushing? My only regret was that my old legs couldn’t hold out to stay for the evening concert and missed Yaa Pono and Trigmatic. Still I felt privileged and excited to have been part of it.

There is a rapidly developing cultural scene in Accra but this was unique in that the art was taken into the James Town community. Well done to accra[dot]alt coordinators Mantse Aryeequaye and Dr. Sionne Neely and I look forward to its continuation and growth in the future.

I was therefore disappointed to read a scathing and cynical review of the festival by the respected blog Holli’s Ramblings in which she seemed to have missed the festival all together.

The issues she raises are important. I suggest she poses a false dichotomy between food and art suggesting that culture is a luxury item when people need rice. It is rather an extreme portrayal of the people of James Town (who are not starving Africans) and negates the important role culture already plays in their lives. It also ignores the fact that many of the artists were residents of James Town. She focuses on the sponsorship of the French embassy ignoring the organisational role played by Ghanaians in an attempt to put a cynical light on the event. Please read her post and look at her carefully selected photos contrasted with photos of the event listed above. She labelled the event a predictable failure. Agreed, the event had its difficulties, and there could have been more events, but, in my view, it was a promising and enjoyable beginning.

12 comments

I agree; Holli missed the point altogether and her choice of words are almost unforgivable though she admitted she went there as a skeptic. She achieved seeing what she intended; the negative side. She should have stayed home.

Interesting – I saw your header on FB and was coming over with the intention of asking if you’d seen Holli’s post. I was surprised by the difference between her post and NK’s pics. Interesting how different people can be at the same event and have a completely contrary experience.

I have resolved not to waste my time on these wannabes. They want to carry the title ‘I care and you don’t’. I guess poverty is seen in every country. She could go and solve the economic crises at wherever she is coming from, after all the whole of Europe and North America is in recession.

Hi Graham – I have been bombarded by outrage and scathing generalisations of me on my own blog, after this post. I have been called racist etc. , just for pointing out the negative side of the festival. I think that is immature and closedminded in itself. I am not sure of you know me personally, but racist is about as far from me as it gets. I hope you and your readers know that I have lived in Ghana a long time and there is alot i love about Ghana. I have spent some time in Jamestown, and I beg to differ with your comment that it is not full of starving Africcans. Sometimes the truth hurts. Poverty is endemic in this area. If you want me to post statistics, i am sure I can find the data.

I feel that i was the only one – who even bothered to show up – which many many who were invited did not – who was brave enough to point out what the vibe was like. That the event took place amid the poverty and squalor.

Did you not see the overflowing gutters? On the street where the kids were painting tires, I saw a taxi almost hit two kids, and he shouted obsenities in Twi at them… the side of the road they had chosen was full of greenish brown toxic waste, and some of the tires rolled right in it. Is that fun? Safe? A great environment for the kids? I also saw some of the volunteers, totally overwhelmed by the crowds of local kids, trying to push back throngs of those who wanted to participate, threatening them etc – the disconnect was between the lack of enough facilities to let all the kids participate, and the kids’ forceful determination to be at the front of the line. There were moments of chaos.
The organization was poor. We walked the streets for 2 hours and found what might have been a quarter or less of what was advertised.

Why do you make excuses for an event that was scheduled to begin at 10am – having not ‘gotten off the ground’ before I gave up at about 1:30pm?

Am I such a monster?

I feel the entire Ghanablogging group has decided to gather up and villify me for the opinion that I had as a witness at an event.

I think that itself is unfair. I am interested in dialogue, but i want people to admit there are faults where they are glaringly obvious. Maybe by looking at what went wrong, things could be better next time. By glossing over everything and giving a falsely rosy picture, we don’t encourage change for the better….

Hi Holli
I read your blog but don’t believe we’ve ever met. Until I read the comments you’ve just made about your history in Ghana I knew nothing about you.

You have taken some harsh criticism over your post which has become quite personal. I do not have the perception that this has been orchestrated by Blogging Ghana. Only 2 of us have addressed your post and I don’t recognise any of the comments as coming from our members.

I arrived at 2pm as the morning activities did not interest me and the momentum gradually picked up. I did genuinely enjoy myself and met interesting people and friends. I think everyone would agree there were problems and, as you say, constructive criticism can only help things improve next year.

I think the problem was the tone of your post. It was so negative from the start with your “disaster in the making” comment. It felt so scathing and cynical that any constructive criticism was obscured. It came across as ungenerous. To use the polite form it felt like you were raining on someone else’s parade although very little of your post was actually about the festival.

You seem to have a problem with the event taking place in James Town. Would it have made a difference if the festival was directed at the wealthy instead? Or do you believe it should never have taken place? Beyond the negativity it was hard to know what it was you wanted. And perhaps this was the reason why the reaction has been so strong?

Hi Graham – thanks for your calm and reasonable response. I am a good friend of Trish and have seen you sing – I beileve in that context we’ve met. But no worries. As you may know, a fellow blogger (Anti-Rhythm) wrote a post directed at me personally and directed people to go and vomit on me… He has compared the fact that I have a half Ghanaian son, to slave masters in the castles who would bring the women up and rape them! This has gone too far, and I hope you would agree with that. In retrospect I may have cone across far too negative, but I am not a journalist and I was in a melancholic mood after visiting Jamestown that day. In my personal opinion, which is all a blog can be, it all just didn’t come together and I was sad to see the poverty around me. If I gave the impression I hated Jamestown or believed the people are not entitled to some fun and art, it was a mistake. I believe that if the general population there had conceived of it and bought into the concept, that would be great. I am not sure that happened. Admittedly I was not there all day, and I could only reflect on what I experienced. Maybe I should have stayed longer – but maybe the festival should have started within at least an hour of the advertised time?! At the end of the day, this has spiraled far out of control and I have been labelled some ludicrous things. I dedicated years of my life to volunteering here. I learned Twi where most other foreigners can’t be bothered. I am not singing my praises but just trying to say that one post which didn’t claim to be journalism, has turned into a witch hunt….

Thank you for your account of the event. As I am currently out of the country and very curious about the event, it was uplifting to read your description (and of course, see Nana Kofi’s beautiful pictures), especially, as Holli’s was the first post I read about the festival.

Yours seems to paint a picture of what went on in a more realistic, and of course, positive manner, but also, more in line with the Jamestown I know and love. I also respect you very much for your calm, rational and straightforward reponse to Holli on this issue.

Come on Holli, give it a rest with this “witch hunt” nonsense! When you write a blog and put yourself out there you should expect that there will be some reaction to your blog posts. The tone of your blog post was out of sync with the experience of most of the people that attended the same event. You were venting about your frustrations with Ghana and poverty in Jamestown — and that is understandable. Your work brings you in contact with the filth and poverty.

As I indicated, you should not have used an old photo of the lighthouse and photos from Agbogbloshie (Sodom and Gomorrah) to illustrate your story. That was not honest.

Also, referring to Jamestown as a “ghetto” is not fair to the residents of Jamestown and the many Ghanaians who hail from Jamestown. It is a historical town and very large area that was rebuilt following the Bubonic plaque of 1908. There are several turn of the century Victorian style buildings and other colonial era houses –most of which have gradually deteriorated as the more wealthy and well-educated family members moved to other parts of Accra and left the poorer family members behind. For those who want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown/Usshertown,_Accra

Over the past 40 years or so, the people of Jamestown and the GaMashi area, in general, have become impoverished. First, they have lost a significant part of their family lands due to government appropriation of their land for development and governmental purposes. Second, Ghana’s “lintel law” that was enacted in order to accelerate development in Accra has often been applied to their detriment. Third, the destruction of Makola No. 1 market in the late 1970s caused a lot of families to lose their primary source of income and many have still not recovered. Most of the women who are now poor were quite wealthy market traders before Makola No. 1 was destroyed. Fourth, the long period of economic decline from the late 1970s through the mid 1990s affected the already impoverished families much more significantly.

Despite the poverty, the Jamestown- GaMashi area remains vibrant and has the potential for tourism. Holli, they have to start from somewhere and the Chale Wote Street Arts Festival was a step in the right direction. Writing a blog post that denigrates the festival, Jamestown people and their community is not fair and does not help them. The people of Jamestown and GaMashi do not deserve your contempt and condescension. You need to discuss these issues with an appropriate tone of understanding and compassion.

It takes a lot of time and effort to put together an event. We all agree that the event should have started on time and could have been better organised. However, the extent of your anger is not appropriate.

Please take a breather and reflect on how you could have done things better and achieved the same results. I look forward to meeting you in the future since we both have a passion about development issues. Take good care and stay blessed!